“With your eyes closed, you could have been on Bourbon Street.” –NY Daily News.
Baby Soda was formed in 2007 in Brooklyn New York, by musicians who met playing traditional jazz in Washington Square Park and the NYC subway system. The group has grown and changed over the years, to include a large family of talented New York musicians, many coming here to realize their musical aspirations. The repertoire has changed as well with the original ensemble playing more of the music common to the street bands in New Orleans today.
The current repertoire has expanded to include more of the music of Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Warren & the composers who created the great American songs of Tin Pan Alley. We are not recreationists, playing note for note transcriptions, but play this expanded repertoire in the New Orleans style of small ensemble improvisation, blending arranged and improvised sections.
The instrumentation is a distinctive part of our sound. A low-boy hi-hat, wood block and one string box bass, have replaced the washboard as the percussion section most of the time. They are played by the horn and banjo players, unless we’re performing with a traditional kit drummer.
Baby Soda loves playing weddings, and this early traditional jazz is the perfect wedding music. The older generation remembers it fondly, their children are discovering the music for themselves and the toddlers dance.
We can provide music for the ceremony, cocktail reception, dinner and dancing, or any portion of the event. We can play traditional Jewish wedding music as well as our jazz repertoire.
What people are saying about Baby Soda;
“These are high-tone instruments!” –NYPD
“Baby Soda provides a feel good take on vintage Dixieland sounds” –Time Out NY
“This is not bluegrass!” –Peter Ford
“With your eyes closed, you could have been on Bourbon Street.” –NY Daily News
“This is your 2nd warning!” –NYPD